Why Do We Tell Stories?
Stories are used as an outlet to convey and share powerful emotions and experiences with others. In Life of Pi, Pi tells stories with an underlying truth to them, allowing him to hare emotion and grief for his family without showing his guilt. His altered version is preempted by the anonymous author in the author's note who figures that stories and fiction should be the "selective transforming of reality" (Martel VIII) as Pi picks and chooses what he wants his listeners to know and believe about his experience. Pi attempts to bring out the essence of his experience without having to relive the trauma. He is still fully immersed in the story, and he still has a big part in the events, he just alters the characters of the story. Alternately, in Goodbye Lemon, the narrator Jack uses his story as a way to share his troubled family life in a way that is less personal, by using his deceased brother as the main character instead of himself. He is both dealing with his grief of missing his brother and comforting himself by trying to "Write him back to life" (Davies). Jack gives his brother "life" through his stories and theories about him. To Jack, stories are the only way to honor his brother and keep his memory alive.
Stories are used as an outlet to convey and share powerful emotions and experiences with others. In Life of Pi, Pi tells stories with an underlying truth to them, allowing him to hare emotion and grief for his family without showing his guilt. His altered version is preempted by the anonymous author in the author's note who figures that stories and fiction should be the "selective transforming of reality" (Martel VIII) as Pi picks and chooses what he wants his listeners to know and believe about his experience. Pi attempts to bring out the essence of his experience without having to relive the trauma. He is still fully immersed in the story, and he still has a big part in the events, he just alters the characters of the story. Alternately, in Goodbye Lemon, the narrator Jack uses his story as a way to share his troubled family life in a way that is less personal, by using his deceased brother as the main character instead of himself. He is both dealing with his grief of missing his brother and comforting himself by trying to "Write him back to life" (Davies). Jack gives his brother "life" through his stories and theories about him. To Jack, stories are the only way to honor his brother and keep his memory alive.